Category Archives: GMO’s

“Men only care for science so far as they get a living by it, and that they worship even error when it affords them a subsistence” Goethe

“After the thing went off, after it was a sure thing that America could wipe out a city with just one bomb, a scientist turned to father and said, “Science has now known sin.” And do you know what father said? He said, “What is Sin?”

~Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

The Economist just published an excellent article on the current miserable state of peer-reviewed, published science. (How Science Goes Wrong: Scientific Research Changed The World, Now It Needs To Change Itself). The article describes the peer-review process, whereby scientific knowledge becomes understood and available to the world.

Peer-review is even held to be the defining characteristic of science itself, the method by which science protects itself from fraud, and along with replicability of experiment, that which separates “science” from “religion”. The immediate ramifications of all the faulty and dishonest science produced by the current system are not fully addressed. But we are all victims of dishonest and inept science, including the institution of science itself.

Though science is ideally an unbiased search for truth, scientists themselves seem as willing as anyone else to subvert the truth regarding their science (typically by making up ‘data’ from ‘experiments’) if they can get a little extra cash in the deal. Chemical companies like Monsanto, Dow, DuPont, Cargill and Syngenta have lots of cash that somehow finds it’s way into these ‘science’ grant funds and laboratories.

Because ‘science’ has a such a strong association with ‘truth’, imagine the power you could gain if you showed people ‘science’ that was faked, that was intentionally skewed- that was in essence, a lie? And that lie said that the product that you were selling was healthy when it wasn’t. That lie would give the liar a better position to profit, would it not? What if you were told that DDT was good for you, based on ‘sound science’? Or that smoking was good for you, based on the opinion of scientists?

A lot of research is done in academic settings that are supposed to be independent of the profit motive, in effect a pure search for truth. But that is often not the case. “Universities offer ‘independent’ advice to governments while taking corporate money for ‘research’. Corporations offer that money to universities, not for the knowledge it generates, but primarily for the influence it buys” states a recent article in Opensource that investigates the troubling control of academic science by scientists and the corporations employing them, and the subsequent control of ‘independent’ scientific journals. Read more here: “The Goodman Affair: Monsanto Targets the Heart Of Science”. The author, Claire Robinson, comes to some of the same conclusions as that given by The Economist.

Of course scientists often make mistakes, and can simply misinterpret the data from an experiment, or be subject to an unconscious bias toward a certain result. After all, scientists are only human, right? That is why in the early days of the modern era of Science, practioners insisted on adopting what is called the “Precautionary Principle”, which states: “The precautionary principle or precautionary approach states that if an action or policy has a suspected risk of causing harm to the public or to the environment, in the absence of scientific consensus that the action or policy is harmful, the burden of proof that it is not harmful falls on those taking an action.”

What happens when the precautionary principle is not used? Let’s take a quick stroll through a “scientific hall of shame” that often results, shall we? It might be titled “Where The Precautionary Principle Was Ignored, or When Science Just Plain Goes Wrong”.

All the following exhibits show what once was believed to be truth and fact to men of science. We start with the well-known catastrophe of bloodletting, whereby George Washington lost his life for a common cold.

Or how about the once-common practice of re-moving a wo-man’s uterus for the broadly defined condition known as hysteria?

Let’s take a moment to linger in the smoking exhibit, and remember the large numbers of physicians who publicly endorsed cigarette smoking as a healthy habit, right up until the 1960’s, when they became the first group to quit in large numbers. In fact, phony science is now often called ‘tobacco science’, since large numbers of scientists stood by the ‘smoking is healthy’ claim for many decades.

We come to the horrifying but once-common practice of prescribing calomel, (mercury) to women for almost any complaint, which led to large numbers of American women walking the streets like spectres in the mid-to-late 1800’s.

Remember Thalidomide? How many severely deformed children were born for that scientific ‘mistake’ that initially generated huge profits for the drug companies? This exhibit is so traumatizing, children are not allowed to view it, and it stands behind curtains.

Testicular injection is a more light-hearted exhibit to linger in, whereby we learn that testicle matter from animals was injected into men in the early 1900’s in an effort to reverse aging. Ha Ha, nice try though!

Thyroid radiation is another exhibit in our hall, whereby men of science routinely radiated children’s thyroid glands in the belief that this would somehow help them. Whoopsie!! Apparently they also radiated earache, acne, tonsils, adenoids, birthmark, mumps and fungus! OOOPS, sorry about that.

As we pass the estrogen replacement/breast cancer exhibit, the lead paint disaster and the Vioxx back pain/heart attack fiasco memorial, a very extensive tableau about Nuclear Energy and the Fukushima Catastrophe we finally find:

The Gentically Modified food section, wherein we see that Genetically Modified (in the lab) foods were advertised as more nutritious, needing less water to grow and as even being more productive, creating more food per acre than ordinary plants, and conveniently being just what we desperately need to feed the world, all the while reducing toxic pesticide use! (A picture of Bono from U2 and Bill Gates, supposedly the worlds richest man, accompanies this exhibit under the heading ‘GMO cheerleaders’). Of course it has now been discovered that not only were none of those claims true, but in fact GMO food can create inflammatory allergic reactions in those eating them that lead to almost any major chronic disease, even ADHD and obesity and cancer and mental illness, all of which skyrocketed during their period of use. This GMO exhibit stands next to the one for glyphosate, the GMO-based herbicide (Monsanto’s RoundUp®) wherein we find that it was shown by men of science as a very safe pesticide, only later after billions of pounds of it had been dumped on our food, did ‘they’ discover that it caused birth defects, nutritional deficiencies, gut dysbiosis, soil death and was even neurotoxic. Dang! Sorry guys! What is the precautionary principle anyway?

What is truly astonishing in this exhibit is that the people of America were even prevented from knowing when GMO food was in their lunch because it was not required to be labeled. Thus many who had discovered the dangers of this laboratory food were still injured by it.

2. Miley Cyrus comes out against the labeling of GMOs in Washington State

3. President Obama is negotiating secret free-trade legislation (TPP) that could make the labeling of GMOs illegal everywhere

4. Breaking Bad Final Episode contained a cameo by Miley Cyrus

If you picked #1 and #3 have a piece of cheese! Both true! Funny how we all know about Breaking Bad and Miley Cyrus while only a few know about TPP trade legislation negotiations or the fact that GMOs represent the greatest health issue (severe allergies, adhd, depression, obesity, organ damage, infertility, hormone disruption), environmental issue (chemical pollution, soil damage, cross contamination of normal plants, increased pesticide use), legal issue (commercial GMOs are based on the patenting of life forms, even animals have been patented) and social issue (the death of scientific integrity, complete corporate control of our food supply, death of small farms) OF OUR DAY!

So lets get GMOs labeled here in the good old USA while we BOYCOTT them! Do your health a favor, do your kids a favor, do the earth a favor, do your neighbors a favor and refuse to eat GMOs. Do it with love! Send $5 to Washington state to help counter the 17 million dollar advertising budget of Monsanto (Agent Orange) and Dupont (C8 Teflon) and Bayer (Zyklon-B), the major bio-tech players. GMO food products are a complete scientific scam, good only for chemical company profits. Why are they running food safety at the FDA?

Monsanto shares plunge on reduced seed sales. Even though it’s product is guaranteed a profit via the ethanol corn program. Any corn grown in the USA is guaranteed a market and a profit from the ethanol program, even though it takes more energy to convert the GMO corn into fuel than you get out of the fuel. “The study concludes that the cumulative energy consumed in corn farming and ethanol production is six times greater than the power the ethanol provides in a car engine.”

HOW DO YOU BOYCOTT GMOs? Eat only ethically raised organic meat- because most GMOs go towards feeding livestock in massive, hideous factory farms called CAFOs. Our only sane response is boycott. We must pressure NYC to serve GMO free food in NYC school cafeterias. schoolfood.info

Whole Foods and many other stores also sell free range meat. It is well worth the extra cost. Your health will greatly improve. Avoid farm raised fish, and eat only organic milk and cheese. Shop at health food stores. Factory farmed food is almost devoid of real nutritional content. For example- factory farmed fish have almost no omega-3 fats! Have a look at at this chart comparing the nutritional content of GMO corn against natural corn. A lot of people don’t want to spend a little extra for ethically raised meat but will gladly spend $4 on a Strabucks coffee. What’s up with that?

Avoid any product containing soy oil, corn oil or cottonseed oil as the primary GMO crops are soy, corn and cotton, unless it says organic. Also, if a product is labeled USDA Organic, or Non-GMO Project it is GMO free.

According to Dr. Huber, likely the leading GMO expert in the world, an award-winning, internationally recognized scientist, and professor of plant pathology at Purdue University for the past 35 years-the following three facts are some of the most important that everyone needs to understand about GMOs:

Despite what the media and so-called “experts” proclaim, there are NO peer-reviewed scientific papers establishing the safety of GMO crops.According to Dr. Huber, so far, no one has been able to establish that there’s a safety factor to either the genetically engineered proteins (i.e. the foreign proteins produced by the genetically modified plant) or the chemicals we’re consuming in ever larger quantities as a result of the genetic engineering process.There are, however, both clinical and peer-reviewed scientific papers showing the hazards of GMO crops, including harmful secondary effects.

“A group of us met with top USDA administrators. They assured us that they based all their decisions on peer-reviewed science. When we asked them if they would share any of that, they were unable to produce any,” he says.

Epidemiological patterns show there’s an identical rise in over 30 human diseases correlated with our increased usage of glyphosate and the increased prevalence of genetically engineered proteins in our food.

Genetically engineered foods, as well as conventional crops that are heavily sprayed with glyphosate (the active ingredient in Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup), have lower nutrient density than organic foods. They also contain high amounts of pesticides with documented harmful health effects, along with novel, highly allergenic, proteins. source

Could YOU Be Altering Your OWN Genes When You Eat GMOs?

As discussed by Dr. Huber, research clearly shows that the novel proteins created in genetically engineered plants are highly allergenic, with the capability to promote diseases like cancer and liver or kidney failure. But Dr. Huber points out that there are other factors involved as well, which have some scientists concerned about the spread of those genes into the human gut… Not only do GMOs alter your intestinal microflora, but research shows that human cells are also able to transfer those novel genes, thereby affecting the human genome.

“Especially with generation two genetic engineering, called gene silencing—that section of the nucleic acid can actually be picked up or attached to your own genes, and then start shutting down your own physiology in that process… It’s well-documented in the scientific literature.”

Indeed, last year, University of Canterbury Professor Jack Heinemann released results from genetic research he conducted on this type of GE wheat, which showed without “any doubt” that molecules created in the wheat, which are intended to silence wheat genes to change its carbohydrate content, may match human genes and potentially silence them. If that’s not a concern, I don’t know what is! University Professor Judy Carman agreed with Heinemann’s analysis, stating in Digital Journal:6

“If this silences the same gene in us that it silences in the wheat — well, children who are born with this enzyme not working tend to die by the age of about five.”

Heinemann reported that his research revealed over 770 pages of potential matches between two GM genes in the wheat and the human genome. Over a dozen matches were “extensive and identical and sufficient to cause silencing in experimental systems,” he said. Experts warned that eating the wheat could lead to significant changes in the way glucose and carbohydrates are stored in the human body, which could be potentially deadly for children and lead to serious illness in adults.

The conversation will revolve around the courage of independent scientists who value the importance of unbiased research and who have a firm understanding of the ethics of scientific research. In the interest of professional integrity, they must and many have demanded the need to fully and comprehensively research GMO food crops without restrictive research mandates that fail to take into account the impact of biotechnologies on our health and environment and without the threat of the “purse” from the biotech industry.

For more than two decades, Monsanto has been poisoning our water, our soil, our food.

But right now, the Biotech Bully is focused on one thing: Poisoning the minds of voters in Washington State – voters who are still on the fence about I-522, an initiative to label GMOs in food sold in grocery stores.

Last week, Monsanto and friends launched a statewide, anti-labeling, anti-I-522 ad blitz. It looks a lot like the $46-million worth of negative, deceitful ads they unleashed last year this time in California. Ads that helped defeat California’s GMO labeling initiative.

Monsanto, DuPont, Dow, Bayer, BASF and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (representing the junk food gang) are footing the bill. With almost $12 million (so far) to spend, they’re running ads that are dishonest and misleading. But clever. And convincing. OCA

The New York Times publishes two major pro-GMO articles in one week while ignoring the 93% of Americans that want them labeled. One article by Amy Harman, who never met a GMO she didn’t like, is another lightweight substance free cheerleading fest about “Golden Rice” which can supposedly cure blindness (She doesn’t mention that a vitamin A deficiency is easily handled with a very inexpensive supplement pill, as the WHO advises, or that it is being pushed hard by the Bill and Melinda Gtes Foundation who just bought 300,000 shares of Monsanto stock!) The other article is about building a better tomato so that Americans will eat more of them and be healthier. Seriously! Does the tomato really need to be improved? Amy Harman’s hero-scientists have gone from Clint Eastwood-like bravery to now acting like Jesus, curing the blind and feeding the multitudes. Who could resist such an allure? Since the introduction of GMOs into America’s food chain in 1996, many major diseases have skyrocketed, including obesity, Parkinson’s, gastro-intestinal disorders, ADHD and autism. All of which are linked to gut bacteria and digestion. GMOs create strange and unpredictable proteins that result in inflammation of the gut. Chronic Inflammation can lead to any major degenerative disease.

“In the only authenticated feeding trial of GM food on human volunteers carried out by scientists in the UK, the complete transgene DNA of Roundup Ready soybean was recovered from the colostomy bag in 6 out of 7 subjects after a single meal, at levels up to 3.7 % of intake. In 3 subjects, about 1 to 3 per million bacteria cultured from the contents of the colostomy bag were positive for the GM soybean transgene, showing that horizontal transfer of GM DNA had occurred; but no bacteria were found to have taken up the vastly more abundant non-transgenic soybean DNA. This is direct evidence that GM DNA has a much greater propensity for horizontal gene transfer, as I have maintained from the start” [3].

So why is the New York Times pushing the GMO propaganda so hard while ignoring the GMO labeling campaign right here in New York and especially in Washington State? GMOs are proven to be allergenic and people with sensitivities to them should at least be able to avoid them by reading a label. The New York Times editorial board even came out against labeling GMOs!!!

“Just when public opposition to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is at an all-time high, the biotech and junk food industries are once again pouring millions of dollars into a campaign in Washington State to defeat laws that would require labels on foods containing GMO ingredients.

Coincidence? Industry spokespeople say the suspiciously timed resurrection of Golden Rice isn’t a public relations stunt designed to convert GMO skeptics. But absent any new news on a crop that hasn’t gained traction in more than a decade, the move looks more like an act of desperation than a legitimate defense of biotechnology.

… the real issue is this. Golden Rice is no closer to saving the world’s kids than it was 13 years ago. Because then, as now, there is still no proof that it can. And better alternatives exist.” OCA

NY Times Board of Directors: out of 14 members, nine are involved in finance and investment or pharmaceuticals or big food. No health and nutrition experts, no environmentalists. Probably the most important field in investment capital right now is in bio-tech, with thousands of projects spread across the world, with potential profits in the trillions. Bio-tech is huge in medicine, energy and food. A story in the NY Times that actually told the truth, the scientific truth about GMOs could ruin an investment profile overnight.

Educate yourself and protect the health of your children. Remember that there is not a food shortage in the world. There is a distribution problem. Organic farming produces higher yields and is more drought tolerant, and according to an international study published at the University of Michigan it can feed 9 billion people. But organic crops cannot be patented like GMOs and bring in billions of dollars in profit.. And organic farming does not use super-profitable petroleum-based substances like pesticides and chemical fertilizers. So why would big business support it? Organic farming also means an end to unemployment and a vastly more healthy population. I wonder why the NY Times doesn’t mention all these things. It’s just real hard to make billions selling really good food. So do yourself and the world a favor and buy organic food. Avoid CAFO meat. Find a restaurant that serves grass-fed free range meat.

The New York Times featured article last Sunday about genetically engineered oranges was so comically one-sided and histrionic in it’s support for the genetic modification of your food that it actually was funny. It wasn’t really an article- it was much more like a lengthy film treatment for a Hollywood movie.

The plot centered around hero scientists, with their brave leader perfectly costumed in his introductory shot, with Clint Eastwood’s rugged snarl under hip sunglasses, posing outdoors, braving the elements alone, next to his vulnerable new genetically modified orange-tree progeny, for now hiding safely under his protection. He is also appropriately scientist nerdy with dress slacks and shoes, and for a costume ‘hook’ probably aimed at some of the females in the audience, he wears a pink button down shirt tucked in over a nerdy paunch. He’s a sensitive tough-guy leader of scientists!

The article reads just like direct-to-film pulp fiction and has the effect of a thriller on it’s readers- it’s a cliffhanger, jam-packed with good guys and evil antagonists- with the fate of a sacred American treasure (that must-have glass of orange juice for breakfast) hanging in the lurch.

What is so fascinating and comical about this article/film proposal, is that while it rattles on and on for page after exciting page, it never once, not once mentions the negative environmental and health impacts of laboratory modified, genetically engineered food.

In effect the grim enemy our hero scientists face in this film proposal/article are not super-weeds, antibiotic resistant bacteria, ADHD, autism, severe food allergies, mysterious new pathogenic soil micro-organisms, increasing cancer rates or even the total control of our food supply by corporations that specialize in things like agent orange and dioxin, but no! Wait for it… the enemy is environmentalist throwbacks, scare mongering, regulation loving, precautionary principle elitist foodies! GASP!

Despite overwhelming scientific validation in both theory and experiment, that altering a food by laboratory cross-species genetic manipulation is reckless, dangerous and toxic, our hero scientists and their scriptwriter soldier on into a land where the people desperately need to be saved from ignorance, and triumphantly show them the salvation of genetic engineering of food. Our hero is both man of action and a thinker, a philosopher, a brave man unconcerned with one of nature’s most sacrosanct boundaries. That boundary is that different species, even of the same family, do not contribute directly to each other’s genetic pool. A human being cannot mate with a whale and produce viable offspring. A human and a whale do have some of the same genes, and are both mammals, but they are different species, and as such, we do not mate. Mating is nature’s way of genetic modification. Jellyfish do not mate with monkeys, but they have traded genes in the laboratory.

Human beings have been genetically modifying plants and animals for years using techniques like selection for desired traits, and grafting. But never have different species been bred together that create a viable genetic offspring. The species-specific gene boundary is a natural boundary that is foolish to cross for clear scientific reasons that remain unspoken in the film proposal of an article. The corn plant’s giant fruit- the corn cob, was actually created by human beings by encouraging certain traits in the corn plant by selection over many generations. That would be a form of natural selection. One thinks the orange tree could be saved in a similar fashion, or the bacteria threatening it could be controlled in a similar fashion. Those approaches receive short shrift in this thriller and are in fact barely discussed. It probably would have disrupted the flow.

Ultimately the star of ‘Heroic Race to Save the Orange’ is a tragic hero. In an angle ignored by scriptwriter Amy Harman, but sure to be told in the film’s inevitable sequel, we discover that while walking roughshod over nature with the new tools of genetic modification, our scientist heroes ignored even their own principles in their arduous quest to preserve America’s breakfast options. Fame, glory and a patented life form (the ‘new’ orange tree) yielding handsome profits for generations to come would be, of course, totally secondary and unmentioned in the article.

The evidence that the Clint Eastwood scientists ignore is that genetic information and the process of genetic expression and it’s influence is far from understood, to say the least. It is now known that a single gene performs multiple tasks, and has multiple paths of expression. That the corresponding complexity within a single species’ DNA creates conditions where it is impossible to predict what will happen when a strange gene from a different species is introduced into a host plant. That a gene codes for a protein, but that it may code for multiple proteins by influencing other genes, or even code for a protein not to be made. A single strange protein, like a prion, which causes mad cow disease, can be as toxic as agent orange. Want more new science? Your digestive system produces most of the serotonin your brain needs to function properly! Got depression? Check your gut. Still feel like we really have to have genetically engineered food?

The science of genetics has now been completely rewritten since Monsanto and other hero scientists bent on feeding a starving planet (satire) began tinkering with plant DNA. (Genetic engineering is really about being able to patent food, which is not a heroic act) This new field of science is called epigenetics, and it has rewritten everything we thought we knew about genes. Our hero and his scriptwriter seem not to have heard of it. This is odd since the New York Times reported on it in 2007 in an article which states:

“Instead, genes appear to operate in a complex network, and interact and overlap with one another and with other components in ways not yet fully understood. According to the institute, (United States National Human Genome Research Institute ) these findings will challenge scientists “to rethink some long-held views about what genes are and what they do…The presumption that genes operate independently has been institutionalized since 1976, when the first biotech company was founded. In fact, it is the economic and regulatory foundation on which the entire biotechnology industry is built.”

This new evidence of the complex not fully understood network of genes means that our hero, by making a genetically engineered orange in order to save the holy morning glass of juice in America, may potentially be submitting any and all juice drinkers to some form of severe allergic response, or over time, to something even worse. Even a mild allergic response can eventually maim and even kill. Strange proteins will most likely be created. Strange proteins cause inflammation in the body. Chronic inflammation, especially in the digestive tract can lead to any major disease.

Genetically modified food has been proven many times in strict scientific trials and studies, and in numerous field reports from livestock breeders, to cause gut inflammation in the animals that are fed GMOs. How can it be that our hero scientists don’t know this? How can it have been ignored by their scriptwriter?

Our heroic scientists display profound ignorance and what must even be called mendacity when they state: “It’s not where a gene comes from that matters,” one researcher said. “It’s what it does.” Because in fact, they don’t fully know what it does. And couldn’t possibly know without generational safety studies, that should really be carried out on humans, since humans will be the ones eating the oranges.

It is only halfway through the article when we learn that there really is no crisis at all! Just a potential one: “Only Dr. Mirkov’s newly fine-tuned trees with the spinach gene, Mr. Kress and Mr. Irey agreed, could be ready in time to stave off what many believed would soon be a steep decline in the harvest.” Then comes the only nod to potential health problems, which are implied to be solely problems of perception amongst consumers: “But the subsequent broader use of the chemical (glyphosate)— along with a distaste for Monsanto’s aggressive business tactics and a growing suspicion of a food system driven by corporate profits.” No mention of glyphosate’s link to obesity, serotonin deficiency leading to ADHD, anxiety and depression, or to birth defects, all proven scientifically many times. No mention of the fact that Monsanto has claimed glyphosate to be “almost completely harmless”.

But the story gains traction when we are introduced to the enemy: elitist activists who can afford to eat what they want and who don’t seem to care about hungry people! Ominous music swells: “Some of Mr. Kress’s scientists were still fuming about what they saw as the lost potential for social good hijacked both by the activists who opposed genetic engineering and the corporations that failed to convince consumers of its benefits. In many developing countries, concerns about safety and ownership of seeds led governments to delay or prohibit cultivation of needed crops: Zambia, for instance, declined shipments of G.M.O. corn even during a 2002 famine.”

Imagine that! Zamibians don’t want their food genetically altered in a lab!!! Even when hungry!!! It turns out neither do Haitians or Hungarians or the Irish or Peruvians, where GMOs are completely banned from being grown. And neither do 64 other countries in the world where GMOs are labeled and hardly anyone eats them. In fact they are pretty much used only as food for livestock, and as cheap food additives like soy lecithin or high fructose corn syrup, mostly here in the USA, which is in the middle of a health crisis. And they create health problems in livestock that need to be addressed by excessive antibiotic use, thereby contributing to bacterial resistance, one of our most pressing health problems. Since the GMOs create diahreea in the animals, they also have to be given medications for that.

And perhaps corporations haven’t convinced consumers of the benefits of genetically modified food (GMOs), because their just aren’t any! No increase in yields, no increase in nutrional content, no decrease in pesticide use, as we were promised many years ago. Just an increase in profits for a chemical company. In fact, genetically altered food had less nutrients than normal food, uses more pesticides than normal food, and creates even less of a yield, especially in drought conditions. Hmmm. Wonder how our heroic juice savers did not know this information.

Our heroes seem unaware of these consequences of laboratory altered genetically modified food impacting the mammalian digestive tract and immune system, and sullenly voice their charitable concerns “…”It’s easy for someone who can go down to the grocery store and buy anything they need to be against G.M.O.’s,” said Dr. Jaynes, who faced such barriers with a high-protein sweet potato he had engineered with a synthetic gene.” I can almost hear him say “What’s a little goddamned diahreea!!!??”

Then comes the knock-out punch on all those bad activists and their terrible fear mongering- delivered with stupendous ignorance or well feigned mendacity, letting us know that taking a gene from a spinach plant and inserting it into an orange plant was just another day in the sun for these brave men and their government regulators. “Dr. Mirkov assured him that the agency’s requirements for animal tests to assess the safety of the protein produced by his gene, which bore no resemblance to anything on the list of known allergens and toxins, would be minimal.” Minimal safety tests! What more could a cowboy scientist want?

Spoiler Alert: The film/article ends a with a shot of disease resistant genetically modified trees growing right next to trees suffering from the potential devastation of the bacterial disease that initially led our heroes off on their genetic quest. A nice, hopeful, picturesque ending. Yet those terrible activists are not yet vanquished, and seem to lurk menacingly near the vulnerable new trees, whose location is a secret behind a locked gate somewhere in Florida. The science appears to be working, especially with minimal safety testing and no labeling. And never one mention of the potential consequences of one strange protein.

It has been another crazy month in the land of the Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO)s. The United States produces and sells and eats by far the most genetically modified food in the world, and the United States is by far the least healthy of all the modernized nations in the world while spending twice as much on healthcare as any other modernized nation. And the United States is the only modernized country in the world that refuses to label food so that consumers know when they are eating GMOs. On the world stage only England cheerleads as much for GMOs as do our corporate and government leaders here in the states.

The interaction and complexity of genetics, health and the environment is so complex it essentially will never be fully understood. When strange proteins are created by laboratory modification, the body will respond with inflammation. Chronic inflammation of the gut can lead to any major degenerative disease, from arthritis to cancer to autism. CHILDREN ARE ESPECIALLY SENSITIVE. Most of the food served in NYC’s school cafeterias contains GMOs, whether in the canola, soy, corn or cottonseed oil, whether in the sugar from sugar beets, or whether in the chicken, pork or beef, food additives and colorings, and now in any sweet corn.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is poised to raise the allowable limits of the herbicide glyphosate (Roundup) in certain food commodities like carrots, sweet potato, and mustard seeds. Some of the allowable limits, or tolerances, will more than double! Increasing the levels of Roundup on food will pave the way for an overall increase in the use of this chemical in agriculture. The problem is Roundup is toxic to human and environmental health. In fact, a recent MIT study finds that glyphosate’s interference with important enzymes in the body can lead to gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Drinking water contaminated with Roundup can lead to congestion of the lungs and increased breathing rate, as well as kidney damage and reproductive effects.

By Genetically modifying a plant in a laboratory, and unleashing them into the environment without detailed, long-term safety studies exemplifies scientific hubris at it’s highest. GMOs are made by science but they violate the precautionary principle, which was a originally bedrock of scientific experimentation, violated by Dr. Frankentstein. Opposition to GMOs is based on the precautionary principle and therefore is the most ‘scientific’ approach. There is such a thing as bad, fake and junk science. It is important to stay informed.

Please don’t feed your kids genetically modified food if at all possible. The less you feed them the better. Most GMOs wind up as animal feed and constitute animal abuse as the intestines of the animals becomes inflamed, necessitating heavy antibiotic and anti-diarheea medication, all of which you will eat. Add a topping of glyphosate pesticides to go with whatever anti-biotic resistant bacteria remain, put a touch of ammonia and radiation, heat and serve.

Gut inflammation and the emotional and psychological consequences. “Now it is known that 90% of the body’s serotonin is produced in the digestive process.”

Current agricultural practices in the United States are a shame and a disgrace. Boycott GMOs and CAFO meat. Demand that the Bloomberg administration conduct a study, based on the health and safety of our children, in phasing out GMOs in NYC school cafeterias. You know, like they do in Italy, where ADHD rates are 1/10th othat in the USA. Could it be the locally sourced organic food they provide their schoolchildren?

Go with your gut! Your gut is like a second brain. Everybody knows this is somehow true. Now science has recently discovered that 90% of the body’s serotonin is produced in the digestive process. Over 30 nuero-transmitters (brain chemicals) are created by the digestive process and the bacteria found in your gut. GMOs and their herbicide glyphosate (RoundUp®) have recently been shown by science to have a terrible effect on digestive bacteria.

While good bacteria died, highly pathogenic bacteria were unaffected by glyphosate.

Poor digestion causes nutrient deficiencies. A deficiency in just one mineral like magnesium can cause tremendous emotional and cognitive problems. And supplementing with pills won’t help much because digestion is so poor!

Italy serves all it’s public school children organic food. ADHD rates are MUCH lower in Italy.

Don’t eat CAFO meat. CAFO stands for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation, or typical American factory (torture) farming. Look for animals humanely raised and antibiotic-free, even when you eat in a restaurant.

Video of European egg producer who found drastic improvements in the health and production of his hens after changing from GM to non-GM soy feed

New study by scientists at Leipzig University which found that Roundup herbicide, used on Monsanto’s herbicide resistant crops negatively impacted the gastrointestinal bacteria of poultry in vitro. The researchers found that highly pathogenic bacteria resisted Roundup, whereas beneficial bacteria were moderately to highly susceptible to it. The study provides a scientific basis to farmer reports of increased gastrointestinal disease in animals fed GM Roundup Ready soy, which is tolerant to Roundup.

“The second brain informs our state of mind in other more obscure ways, as well. “A big part of our emotions are probably influenced by the nerves in our gut,” Mayer says. Butterflies in the stomach—signaling in the gut as part of our physiological stress response, Gershon says—is but one example. Although gastrointestinal (GI) turmoil can sour one’s moods, everyday emotional well-being may rely on messages from the brain below to the brain above. For example, electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve—a useful treatment for depression—may mimic these signals, Gershon says.

Serotonin seeping from the second brain might even play some part in autism, the developmental disorder often first noticed in early childhood. Gershon has discovered that the same genes involved in synapse formation between neurons in the brain are involved in the alimentary synapse formation. “If these genes are affected in autism,” he says, “it could explain why so many kids with autism have GI motor abnormalities” in addition to elevated levels of gut-produced serotonin in their blood.”

So the company that helped invent and supply Agent Orange for chemical warfare in Vietnam is the leading seed supplier (both GMO and non-GMO seeds) and makes GMO crops that are proven to disrupt ecosystems, cause terrible harm to animals and humans- are NOW protected from the constitution for at least 6 months thanks to our broken political system. Many farmers want out of the GMO treadmill, but since Monsanto bought most of the seed companies, non-GMO seeds can be hard to find!

We were promised that genetically modified crops would increase yields and decrease pesticide use- instead yields are the same or less and pesticide use has risen dramatically- at the expense of our health, our children’s health and the health of the environment. But since these crops can be patented- ENORMOUS, global profits are at stake. Food is the biggest business of all, and the giant corporations want total control of it, and our government is helping them get it. In essence, you are now licensing the right to eat your food- you do not own it- if you purchase GMO seed. You are also risking your physical and emotional health, especially of your children. These crops basic DNA has been tinkered with- and the results are downright scary. Watch this 15 minute Greenpeace video “Growing Doubt” or this video on how animals are changed when fed GMO feed.

Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called the organisms “nightmare bacteria” during a telephone news conference, and noted that they could pass their trait for drug resistance — encoded in a scrap of genetic material called a plasmid — along to other bacteria. The problem is most common in the Northeast, particularly in hospitals in New York City, officials said.

Much of the public forgets the gut when it comes to warding off the flu and other more threatening diseases, but the gut—and its army of beneficial bacteria—are essential in protecting us from harm. That’s why eating genetically modified and/or conventionally farmed food could be a direct assault on your own health. Most recently, research has shown that Monsanto’s herbicide, known as Roundup, is destroying gut health, threatening overall health of animals, people, and the planet significantly.

Because GMOs alter livestock digestion, livestock must be given even more antibiotics just to keep them alive. This industrial agriculture method has now created drug resistant bacteria, which some epidemiologists predict could have even more wide ranging, dire consequences like that already found in our hospitals. Antibiotics disrupt gut flora in everyone who takes them. Cattle manure is then often spread on vegetable patches, and the antibiotics enter the vegetables! From the Times article: “The C.D.C. director, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, likened the rising rates of stimulant prescriptions among children to the overuse of pain medications and antibiotics in adults”.

But it gets worse. While good bacteria died, highly pathogenic bacteria were unaffected by glyphosate. These pathogens include several strains of Salmonella and the class Colstridia, anaerobic bacteria known to be some of the deadliest known to us, including C. tetani (tetanus) and C. botulinum (botulin). Although botulin is used to ease overactive muscles and in Botox, America’s most popular cosmetic procedure, it takes but 75 billionths of a gram to kill someone weighing 75 kg (165 lbs).

In Italian government-sponsored research, (v) mice that were fed Monsanto’s GM corn, showed a wide range of immune responses. The mice had an increase in cytokines (substances that are secreted by specific cells of the immune system which carry signals locally between cells, and thus have an effect on other cells). The specific cytokines (interleukins) that were elevated are also higher in humans who suffer from a wide range of disorders. See the table below:

Seralini and his team exposed the deception and the danger. As did Carrasco in Argentina last year. As Seralini states “What matters is that our children’s bodies have become garbage cans! Everyday, I cry because of those diseases simply caused by the environment. More people have died because of chemicals than during World War II. Those who don’t want to see any cause for concern in our studies will have to answer for their serious dishonesty.”

CHILDREN ARE ESPECIALLY VULNERABLE TO PESTICIDES AND HERBICIDES -they are proven to increase the rate of Cancer, ADHD, Allergies, gastro-intestinal disorders, endocrine disorders. Read more on the science of it all here- A Generation In Jeopardy. Genetically modified food crops often have a pesticide engineered into every bite of food- every cell of the plant! Genetically modified foods are designed to be sprayed with massive amounts of pesticides and herbicides. Is that why the USA is last of all industrialized nations in terms of it’s health, despite spending twice the amount on healthcare as any other nation?

Both GE soy and its attendant herbicide glyphosate were implicated in the cancers found in Seralini’s peer-reviewed study. Any honest scientist would react with the desire to do more studies. But bio-tech industry funded scientists only attacked Seralini’s methods and the data. The integrity of science is at stake! Read the Paris Match article here. The journal that published his study has refused to retract it, despite enormous pressure from the bio-tech industry to do so.

DOCTOR SPEAKS ON SERALINI, GM SAFETY, AND INDUSTRY “SCIENCE”

American public health physician John Day MD explains how industry designs its “safety” studies on GMOs and pesticides to avoid finding harm.

Plans to include 2,4-D (half the formula for the notorious defoliant/war chemical used by the United States in Vietnam) as part of a new genetically modified corn have been put on hold. DOW chemical will have to wait one more year for approval. Over 450,000 negative comments were received by the FDA. Add your name to the list.A history of DOW chemical here

A Salmon And An Eel Have A Baby

Genetically engineered Salmon is about to be approved for human consumption and it will not be labeled. With all the scientific data saying that GE food is dangerous, will you want your family to eat salmon that had been engineered to grow twice as fast?

A chimpanzee whose immune system was altered by genetic engineering has been patented. Over 660 animals have been patented. Should life forms be patented? Shouldn’t society be debating this? What are the implications? Have you heard any debates on this issue? Wh can GMO soy and corn be patented, yet remain unlabeled?

Supporters of genetically modified food often distort the debate by claiming that anyone that is opposed to GMO’s are “anti-science”. But is that a scientific argument?

Many scientists, including many working in the biotech field, are opposed to GMO’s as food. These scientists understand the many risks and valid criticisms of GMO’s.

This claim of “anti-science” is so completely wrong that it can only be understood as a deliberate falsehood meant to distract from discussing the truth: The truth is what the science says: GMO’s have not been proven to be safe. Instead they have been proven to very dangerous and completely unnecessary.

Many of the scientists that support GMO crops are in fact employed by the companies that produce these crops. Not very scientific.

UK: ALTERING THE GENES WE PASS ON TO OUR CHILDREN. DO YOU WANT A SAY?
A small team of British scientists is calling for the legalisation of a technique for creating babies with altered genes, but there is no good medical argument for doing this, says Dr David King of Human Genetics Alert (HGA). The technique, mitochondrial replacement, would forever alter the genes we pass on to our children – in other words, the genetic changes will be passed on down the generations. Alteration of the human germline is rejected as unethical and risky by most governments and many scientists. But according to HGA, the UK is the weak link in the otherwise strong consensus against human germline genetic tinkering.http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14494

WHO WANTS HUMAN GM?
In the UK there’s an entire lobby devoted to pushing human genetic engineering, spearheaded by the Science Media Centre, its corporate funder AstraZeneca, and groups and individuals with links to the pro-corporate technophile cult, Living Marxism. New material added to Powerbase:http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/Category:Human_Genetics

GMOs were presented by biotech firms to the public with the promise that these new “scientific” crops would reduce pesticide use.

No one likes pesticides except chemical companies. (Monsanto is and always has been a chemical company. Only fairly recently did they “diversify” into agriculture- in order to sell more chemicals!)

GMO’s have been such a spectacular failure at pest control that pesticide use has actually risen since they were introduced in the 1990’s.

Boycott GMO’s and meat from livestock that was fed using GMOs. Join Pesticide Action Network. Download their new report on pesticides. Join the Center For Food Safety. Explore the website GMWatch.

GMOs are the single most important health issue, environmental issue, legal issue and social issue of our time.

Don’t let chemical companies like Monsanto and DOW and Bayer (formerly known as IG Farben) control the debate. Get involved and educated. Your health and your children’s health is at stake.

Here is some good news!

Cotton growers in India are turning their backs on GM Bt cotton and returning to indigenous varieties.

Danish Farmer Reverses Illnesses in pigs by switching to a GM-free diet for his animals, which is yet further evidence for the toxicity of glyphosate tolerant GM crops. SOURCE : The Institute For Science In Society

A Danish farmer has gained huge public recognition for publishing his simple method for ridding his pigs of illness- removing genetically modified (GM) ingredients from their diet.

Published in the farming magazine Effektivt Landbrug on 13 April 2012 [1], the farmer Ib Borup Perderson describes how his pigs suffered from symptoms including chronic diarrhoea, birth defects, reproductive problems, reduced appetite, bloating, stomach ulcers, weaker and smaller piglets, and reduced litter sizes. This was not just a problem for the animals themselves but also the profitability of the farm, with fewer healthy animals, mounting costs of medicines and added labour costs.

After researching the health hazards of GM foods and associated herbicides, Pederson decided to stop feeding his 450 sows with GM soybean, replacing them with fishmeal and non-GM soybean instead. He began to notice health benefits after two days of a GM-free diet. The farmer’s account has since been published in an English dossier compiled by scientist Brian John of GM-free Cymru (Wales), with collaboration from Pederson, published online by GM Watch [2].

This finding adds to the continual flow of new evidence appearing in peer-reviewed scientific studies, farmers’ reports and witness accounts of the devastating health impacts of glyphosate-based herbicides and the associated GM crops modified to tolerate it. Birth defects from glyphosate exposure were detected in the 1980s in lab animals performed by Monsanto (see [3] EU Regulators and Monsanto Exposed for Hiding Glyphosate Toxicity, SiS 51, [4] Lab Study Establishes Glyphosate Link to Birth Defects, SiS 48, 5Glyphosate Kills Rat Testes Cells, SiS 54). Residents of heavy agrochemical-use zones in Argentina have seen startling increases in birth defects, adult and human cancer rates as well as other illnesses (see [6] Argentina’s Roundup Human Tragedy, SiS 48, [7]Pesticide Illnesses and GM Soybeans, SiS 53). Argentinian tobacco farmers have recently filed a lawsuit against Monsanto for birth defects suffered by their children following claims by the corporation that the chemical was safe to use [8]. Animal feeding studies have shown GM soya feed to cause sterility, stunting and death in rats (see [9] GM Soya Fed Rats: Stunted, Dead, or Sterile, SiS 33). This is also not the first time that livestock illness including reproductive problems has been linked to glyphosate-tolerant crop derived feed. Professor Emeritus Don Huber of Perdue University, a senior scientist of USDA (US Department of Agriculture) has been studying crop health for over 20 years, and warned how reduced mineral content of glyphosate-tolerant crops lead to nutritional deficiencies in livestock that in turn cause reproductive problems (see [10] USDA Scientist Reveals All, SiS 53). Reduced mineral content in crops results from glyphosate’s metal chelating properties, rendering essential minerals unavailable. Nutrient deficiency effects are independent of direct glyphosate toxicity that causes endocrine disruption, birth defects and cancers among other illnesses. The identification of a novel pathogen in glyphosate-treated crops, reproductive organs of livestock as well as aborted foetal tissue may also be a contributing factor (see [11]Emergency! Pathogen New to Science Found in Roundup Ready GM Crops?,SiS50).

Improvements in health with GMO-free diet

The dossier [2] presents following effects since removing GM produce from the pigs’ diets, as described by Pederson:

2. Since switching, there had been no death from bloat in sows or death by ulcers, as opposed to minimum 1 per month previously (36 sows died due to stomach related sickness over the last two years before switching).

3. No sows have died through loss of appetite, whereas 2 sows died from this cause last year.

4. Even without washing between farrowings, diarrhoea does not reappear; previously failing to wash between sows would result in more diarrhoea.

5. Previously the farmer had struggled with diarrhoea in first layer sows, no more problems there.

6. Two years ago when the diarrhoea was as its worst, there were months with nearly 30% dead in the farrowing house. At that time it was impossible to find sows that could nurse piglets.

7. Before it was unusual to have a sow with 13 piglets weaned. The average was about 10.5 per sow plus spare mothers. Now the farmer is getting over 12 piglets on average weaned and 14 piglets weaned per sow is common. There are fewer nursing sows, simply because the sows are milking better and eating more.

8. Sows farrow better and there is 0.3 more live births per sow, of which 0.2 is gained from fewer stillborn. There have been 14.9 live born and 1.6 stillborn averaged over the past 7 months.

9. The piglets weaned are stronger and more evenly sized.

10. Man-hours are reduced by 20-30 hours per month, partly by washing less and because everything is easier.

Pedersen adds: “Independent researchers have shown Roundup to be both a powerful and non-selective biocide and an endocrine disruptor, leading to birth deformities, abortion, cancer and changes in microflora in the gut of mammals, so that clostridia becomes a problem. This, I think, is the direct reason for chronic Botulism in cattle. I know that the diarrhoea and bloated sow problems… which we had — and which disappeared with the changed diet — were due to clostridia bacteria”. Birth defects were a significant problem with “13 malformed piglets (about one in 700) [were] born over the last nine months on the GM diet, most of them live born”.

Economic Improvements with GMO-free diets

The widespread illnesses were burdening the farm with extra costs, including medical costs to deal with rampant stomach problems. Following 12 months of GM-free feed, Mr Pederson now uses half of the national average of antibiotics, compared to above average usage prior to the feed conversion. The savings made by reducing medicinal use by two-thirds was sufficient to cover the extra expense of GM-free feed which has totalled 28,500 DKr. Further, with an extra 1.8 piglet weaned per sow, and 12 less sows dying from stomach problems per year, the farm is making an extra profit of 250,000 DKr a year, translating to roughly an extra £55 per sow.

Danish Government will perform new safety tests

In response to the public interest generated by Mr Pederson’s story, the Danish National Pig Research Centre has decided to investigate effects of non-GM and GM Soya on pig health, stating that there has been no clear scientific study performed to date. The research aims to map stomach changes in pigs fed GM soya-treated with glyphosate from 30 kg bodyweight to slaughter at 110 kg, compared to GM- and glyphosate-free soya.

Brian John, although welcoming the positive move to address the problem, has rightly questioned some of the study design. Feeding pigs from 30 kg instead of 7 kg onwards may miss an opportunity to observe effects that would take place at a younger age, and there is no information as to what they will be fed prior to the GM diet. Effects on reproduction will not be addressed by this study either, which appears to be one of the major concerns.

Scientific investigations have until now been stifled. Regional and national records in many EU countries and the US where GM feed is widely used are inadequate, as government regulators are abandoning their obligations to monitor harmful effects of livestock feed in order to protect food security and public health. Nonetheless, other farmers are sharing personal experiences; another farmer in Denmark, Mr Christensen, has similarly improved his pigs’ health through switching to GM-free feed last year.

To conclude

Farmer’s testimonies need to be taken seriously. They are witness statements from experts in field whose findings are corroborated by laboratory and clinical studies exposing the detrimental and even lethal effects of glyphosate-tolerant crop technologies.

How does the Pork Industry respond to the plummeting sales? By allowing their pigs access to fresh air and sunlight and “normal behaviors” characteristic of the species? By cleaning up the giant lagoons of pig excrement that cause asthma and respiratory ailments and also pollute streams and groundwater? By giving them non-GMO feed so they don’t get so sick? But that would cost them money! It wouldn’t be “efficient”. Instead they produce propaganda videos like this one, trying to convince us that everything is just fine with the pigs. Take a look and see. At first I thought it was a joke.

By the way, the corn they feed these breeding sows is probably NOT GMO, as GMO feed makes animals sterile, (and probably humans as well) as can be seen in this mind-boggling report from livestock farmer Jerry Rosman.

Don’t eat factory meat. When you or your children eat this kind of meat you are getting antibiotic-ridden, pesticide-laden, torture produced, GMO-fed pollution creating health disasters, that drive small, humane farmers out of business all around the world. Choose to eat healthy meat. CAFOs are the primary symbol and reality of all that is wrong with corporatism. CAFOs are also the single largest user of poisonous, pesticide-laden GMOs. Food connects everything. We must put pressure on the NYC Dept. Of Education to stop feeding CAFO meat to our kids.

These giant factory farms have driven millions of small farmers out of business. Because of free-trade agreements, other countries have to accept this meat and this technology. Now China is importing the technology and the pigs needed to make it work. But you don’t have to eat it!

The pigs you will see in the video are breeding sows, from a type of pig developed by American agribusiness to be especially large. They are not “normal” pigs. The reason they do not leave their new and improved “sow-crates” (which have been banned in other countries, is because these pigs are so fat they can barely move. They are grotesque creations of the new corporate agribusiness model. I’ve seen rescued ones at Farm Sanctuary. In the State of Michigan, is has recently become a crime to own other types of pig, which are now named feral pigs.

Mentioned in the video is that growth hormones are not used- this is true. Growth hormones are used on cows to make more milk. The pigs get antibiotics, which make them grow faster.